NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached.
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Project: Quiet Spike
NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project sought to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom. The project centered around a retractable, 24-foot-long lance-like spike mounted on the nose of NASA Dryden’s F-15B research testbed aircraft. The spike, made primarily of composite materials, created three small shock waves that traveled parallel to each other all the way to the ground, producing less noise than typical shock waves that build up at the front of supersonic jets.October 3, 2006NASA Photo / Jim Ross› Quiet Spike Project Description